Katie Madigan
Gen Z makes up the newest block of voters, and the Presidential candidates are posting increasingly often on their social media accounts to cater to them. As the Nov. 5 Election Day quickly approaches, candidates’ social media accounts are growing and branching towards the potential 40 million Gen Z voters, according to Generation Vote.
Grosse Pointe’s League of Women Voters President Lynne Pierce believes that social media is playing a critical role in campaigning this election season and to push voters, especially Gen Z, to the polls, candidates must prioritize promoting on social media.
“If you don’t have a handle on communicating through social media I think that’s a real hindrance,” Pierce said. “There’s many candidates who are what I might call ‘old school voters’ who think that the way you’re going to do it is you’re going to send someone a piece of mail.”
According to American Legal Systems teacher, Dan Gilleran, social media helps potential voters explore important government problems that impact them. To entice new voters to vote, they need to know what they are looking for in a president and must do their own research.
“They need to find an issue that they feel passionate about and I think there’s so many issues that impact young people,” Gilleran said. “Whether it’s the environment or talking about school violence, if you’re talking about any of those things. Find an issue that you are passionate about, follow it and figure out where the candidate stands on that, then take the next step.”
In all types of elections, there are some common misconceptions surrounding voting. Senior and 2024 voter, Henry Rocho strives to diminish those misconceptions.
“People are like, ‘Oh my vote doesn’t matter,’ but it really does in the grand scheme of things because if you look, at especially the more local elections, these elections are getting closer and closer every year and your vote really does matter when it comes down to the line,” Rocho said.
Not only is voting important and critical for America, when voters are well informed, voting can be something that is fun and special, according to Gilleran. It’s an opportunity for voters, especially new ones, to exercise their right to vote in a way that can actually impact their life and future.
“Just get excited, to me it’s such a cool opportunity, and we take it for granted in the United States, and all you simply have to do is look at international news where so many people don’t even have the right to vote,” Gilleran said. “We can’t just take it for granted and say this is the way it is. Because we know, democracy isn’t always going to be here unless we participate.”
